Coal, Steam, and The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course World History #32

The Black Death reduced the population in Europe to the point of reducing the reach of labor markets, but this does not explain the fall in wages in Italy, which was hit by the plague. In essence, high wages combined with low fuel prices meant that it was economically efficient for manufacturers to view machinery as a way to reduce the cost of production. We quote historian Robert Allen: "Wages were high and energy cheap. These prices fueled the Industrial Revolution by giving companies powerful incentives to invent technologies that replaced capital and

coal

with labor." Stan, I'm still afraid that people will accuse me of being pro-European.

Of

course

, others will accuse me of anti-European bias. I have no prejudices against Europe. I love Europe. He introduced me to many of my favorite cheeses, skiing, the countryside and Charlie Chaplin, who inspired Danica's painting today. Indeed, the proximity of

coal

to the surface of the earth in Britain cannot give it cultural superiority. But the salary issue is a little different because it makes it seem like only Europeans were smart enough to pay high salaries. But there is one last thing to consider: India was the

world

's largest producer of cotton textiles, although it actually paid the lowest wages in the

world

.

Agriculture in India was so productive that workers could be supported at very low cost. This, combined with the large population, meant that Indian textile manufacturing could be mass produced without the use of machinery, so they did not need to

industrial

ize. But most importantly from our point of view, there are strong arguments that India's cotton production helped drive

industrial

transformation. Cotton textiles led the Industrial Revolution in its early days, and the main reason Britain rushed to produce cotton was because demand was incredibly high. They were more comfortable than wool ones, but also cheaper, because cotton could be imported from India at low cost.

So Indian cottons created the market and British manufacturers invested in machinery (and imported trade secrets from India) to increase production so they could compete with India. This is one of the ways in which European industrial transformation has become a global phenomenon. For those who enjoy contentious cultural historical discussions, here's the good news. Next week we will talk about capitalism. Thanks for following. See you later. Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Mueller. Text Supervisor Danica Johnson. The show was written by my high school

history

teacher, Raoul Mayer, and me. Meredith Danko coaches us skillfully. and the Thought Bubble optics team.

Last week's phrase was "New England Revolution." That was hard. If you want to suggest future quotes of the week or speculate on the quote of the week, you can do so in the comments. You can ask questions about today's video and they will be answered by our team of historians. Thank you for following our program and as we say in my city: "Don't forget to be awesome."